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What This Book Can Do for You
Diagnosis and Evaluation
When I was new to homeschooling, I had no idea how to go about it, other than what I had seen and experienced in public schools. I spoke with other homeschooling families, asking them about how they did things. I read books about homeschooling and the various ways that others had succeeded. I pored over homeschooling magazines, searching for new ideas that would appeal to me and to my children. What I gained was confusion over which way was best and guilt that our struggles must mean that I was doing something wrong.
Since most homeschooling parents today are themselves products of the public school system, we tend to have very similar ideas of how “school” should happen. When we begin to teach our own children, however, we often find that other methods can work better than the traditional teacher-lectures-and-student-listens technique.
As time wore on, my children and I gradually found our niche, and we developed a style of homeschooling that fit our family. Later, when newcomers sought my advice, I eagerly shared what I had been forced to learn the hard way: that every homeschool will be as unique as its family, because we all have different personalities. The availability of a wide variety of homeschooling materials should indicate to us all that others have learned the same lesson: different needs must be met in different ways.
This book presents diagnostic tools in the form of simple quizzes that will help you see your homeschooling efforts with new perspective. The chapters following the quizzes will help you interpret your quiz results and analyze what changes (if any) could or should be made to your homeschooling routine.
What Type of Homeschooler Are You?
Clarifying your own characteristic homeschooling style can prevent you from working against yourself, make each day go more smoothly, and free you from the guilt of thinking that you do not “measure up” to other homeschooling families. In an effort to help new homeschooling families find their own characteristic styles, I wrote my first quiz, “What Type of Homeschooler Are You?” I thought about all of the homeschoolers I had met over the years and began to group them in my mind through their shared characteristics. Those within each type exhibited distinct reactions to certain types of situations. As I wrote the various scenarios for the quiz questions, I could visualize the various parents and children I knew and how they would have responded to each set of hypothetical circumstances.
Now, obviously, I have only met a limited number of homeschooling families, so the possibility exists that other types of homeschoolers also exist, different from the seven types listed in my quiz. However, of the thousands of people who have taken this quiz via the internet, most have reported that they have found the results to be remarkably accurate.
What Is Your Learning Style?
Another helpful tool for the homeschooling parent lies in recognizing a student’s preferred style of learning. Identifying a student’s learning style will help him learn better and faster as you teach to his strengths and strengthen his weaknesses. I dedicated a great deal of my time as a homeschool teacher to researching learning styles and ways to present lessons in each style. The result of that research was a pair of quizzes called “What Is Your Learning Style?”—one designed for younger children and another with situations geared toward adults and older students. For the parents who cannot spare long hours for research, these two quizzes can provide quicker insight into how their students process information. I have also included a quick reference guide with ideas for basic lesson presentations to the various styles.
Am I Doing Enough?
The question asked most often by homeschooling parents must be “Am I doing enough?” All parents may question themselves from time to time, but homeschooling parents can wear themselves out with this one. Looking back over the years of educating my own children and analyzing what has helped them most in the time since their homeschool graduations, I composed the final quiz in this book as a tool for evaluating progress in academic and personal achievements. Many parents are using it as an informal checklist or guideline for setting their homeschooling goals.
My personal struggles with homeschooling were usually caused by trying to do things in ways that just did not fit us. When both the teacher and the student were constantly on the verge of tears, the material itself was rarely to blame. It is now my desire to help homeschooling families evaluate what they are doing and why they are doing it in the specific way that they are doing it. If you have a good reason for it, and it works for you, please do not change something just because I suggested an alternative! On the other hand, you may be struggling with your students every day or fighting your schedule on a regular basis. Perhaps your students just do not seem to understand the lesson materials that you feel they should be understanding. You may find yourself questioning whether your students are learning the most important skills or making sufficient progress. In those cases, this collection of diagnostic tools can help you identify problem areas and make simple changes that will bring significant improvement to your homeschooling routine. If I can simplify the homeschooling process and prevent others from having to “reinvent the wheel,” then my efforts will not have been in vain.
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